The Return of The Batman
by TheNextBestThingSinceNolan
Summary: The first of three stories commence here, in "The Return of the Batman", telling the tale of Batman in a new re-incarnation of the Batman's coming out of retirement after the death of Jason Todd (Robin). Taken inspiration from Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns", the story introduces a new villain to Gotham, as well as a new member to the Bat family.


Return of the Batman

Batman returns to the streets of Gotham after the death of Jason Todd (Robin) at the hands of the Joker. After that incident, Commissioner James Gordon was hospitalized and in the hospital, resulting in his daughter Barbara Gordon taking up his place as the temporal commissioner. Batman and Barbara clean up the streets of Gotham. At this time, a new villain called 'Killer Croc' is spotted in Gotham and Batman follows him to stop him. After a near death battle, Batman is saved by Barbara and Killer Croc is still on the loose. Barbara then tells Batman that she wants to join him in his vigilante acts, since she won't be able to do anything once her father comes back after recovery. Batman answers no, but Barbara is still persistent.

Barbara then goes off nights, dressed similar as Batman, and fights off the mob. Batman comes in and recognizes Barbara, telling her that she is in over her head. Barbara disagrees and implies that she help him track down Killer Croc. Batman turns her down. Killer Croc then makes an appearance and kills off some of the men working for Joker. Batman confronts Croc and they fight. Joker's men interfere and start fighting Batman, while Croc leaves and takes down more of Joker's men. Just then, Croc meets Barbara, wearing her bat suit, and both fight. Batman sees this and immediately comes into the fight. Barbara is saved and Croc goes under the sewers. The police arrive while both Batman and Barbara go inside the sewers. In there, they are almost taken by surprise when Croc comes out of the water, but they manage to make it out alive. Croc is still loose, but Batman and Barbara make it out alive. When they come out, the news reporter Vicky Vale spots Barbara and coins the name "Batgirl" for her. Batman then decides to take Barbara to the bat cave and makes her take an oath to never tell anyone what she is about to see. Batman explains who he is and what he does, along with the history of the Batman. Batman upgrades the Batgirl suit and gives Barbara a new suit. Both then fight crime and take down a shipment of explosives that were going towards the Joker.

The Joker hears about Batgirl and is not pleased that Batman has some help. He mentions how Batgirl is only coming between the fun that Batman and him have. And he declares that he will take care of her, just like he took care of Robin. So the Joker seeks out Croc and tells him that he will devise a plan so that Croc can try to kill the Batman and Batgirl. Croc agrees.

Barbara drives to Gotham City Police Department (GCPD) and finds Killer Croc trying to destroy the police department. The police are shooting at it, but Croc came with some of the Joker's men. Barbara crashes her car at Croc, only to reveal her suit that she was carrying in her trunk. Croc spots this and smiles, while trying to kill Barbara. Away from her suit, Barbara is hopeless, only with a gun that is useless; bullets bounce off of Killer Croc's impenetrable skin. Just then, Batman arrives and defeats all of Joker's men. Batman and Killer Croc confront each other and fight. Batman breaks killer Croc's teeth and leave him in critical condition. Batman is victorious. An explosion is heard off in a distance and both Batman and Barbara go off to investigate. Barbara claims her suit and changes into Batgirl.

The police already have a perimeter around the area when Batman and batgirl arrive. The satiation includes the Joker, who blew up part of an orphanage home. Batman is angry. He goes into the burning building and tells Batgirl to find any other orphans trapped inside the building. Inside, Batman fights off the Joker's men, while the Joker confronts Batgirl. The Joker taunts Batgirl and tells her to not get in the way of him and Batman. Batgirl strikes the Joker down, only to be buried on top of rubble from another bomb going off on top of them.

The building then collapses and Batman takes the Joker's men outside, along with other orphans who were trapped inside. Not seeing Batgirl outside, Batman goes through the rubble and finds her, still alive, but injured. Out of the rubble on the other side is the Joker, who is caught by the police. The Joker screams out that he will not rest until he kills Batgirl, and he'll make sure Batman never seeks help from people again.

Batman and Batgirl then continue their war against crime, as Jim Gordon (Barbara's father) recovers and assumes the position as the commissioner of the Gotham police. As she suspected, Barbara is told to not get involved with the crime in Gotham, as her father fears for her safety. Barbara agrees, but continues to be Batgirl without her father knowing. Gordon lights up the bat signal and meets with Batman and Batgirl. Gordon informs them that Two-Face is holding up a bank hostage, and that he has Victor Zsass running around the bank, killing people. Batman tells him that he and Batgirl will take care of it. Gordon looks at Batgirl, who was silent throughout the whole conversation, and asks her who she is. She responds, in a shaky low voice, that she is Batgirl. Gordon warns Batman about having other people help him, and that he fears for Batgirl because she is a woman, and in a lot of ways reminds him of his daughter. Gordon confesses that he couldn't imagine something bad happening to Barbara, but Batman assures Gordon that Batgirl is smart and skilled, and that they won't lose another member of the bat family.

Batman and Batgirl then jump off the rooftop and glide their way towards the bank, where gunshots are heard and sirens are wailing. Batman and Batgirl crash towards the windows on the ceiling and start taking down Two-face's men. Two face and Zsass run outside of the bank and turn around to see Batman and Batgirl about to kick them in the face.

End of Part one.


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